Thursday, January 26, 2017

Due to Trump's cluelessness and insistence on staying that way, a group of scientists has gotten together to encourage scientists to run for office, and is teaching them how to do that and access financial support.

Called 314 Action, the
organization is named after the first three digits of pi. It is a political
action committee that was created to support scientists in running for
office. It is similar to Emily’s List, which focuses on
pro-choice female candidates, or VoteVets, which backs war veterans, but the science version.

“A
lot of scientists traditionally feel that science is above politics but
we’re seeing that politics is not above getting involved in science,”
says founder Shaughnessy Naughton. “We’re losing, and the only way to stop that is to get more people with scientific backgrounds at the table.”

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

People on top of hierarchies believe they have the right to control the lives of everyone below. When Trump signed the executive order reinstating the ban on contraceptive assistance to anyone even discussing the option of abortion, there were eight men in attendance, all white. No women.

Now the government of the Netherlands says it wants to help set up an international
abortion fund to help families across the world after US President
Donald Trump reinstated the so-called Mexico City policy.

Dutch official Lilianne Ploumen said that
the lack of financial support will lead to "dangerous backroom
procedures and higher maternal mortality. This
decision has far-reaching consequences above all for the women it
affects, who should be able to decide for themselves if they want a
child, but also for their husbands and children and for society as a
whole," Ploumen, the Dutch minister for foreign trade and development
cooperation, said in a statement. "Banning abortion does not reduce the number of abortions."

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

In hierarchies, people at the top expect so much more that when they lose a little, it feels like they are losing a lot. Also, they feel that people in lower groups deserve so little, that when lower groups get a little more, it is going overboard.

In a poll, Republican men were the only ones who think that it is a better time to be a woman than a man. 82% of women said sexism is a problem in today's society, and 41% said that they had felt unequal because of gender. Meanwhile, men underestimated the sexism that women experience in their lives.

Just over half of Republican men thought it a good time to be a woman while only 41 percent thought it was a good time to be a man. Here is a quote from one Dennis Halaszynski:

"It's easier being a woman today than it is a man. The white man is low person on the totem pole. Everyone else is above the white man."

Looking at who the Trump/Pence administration is appointing doesn't appear to back that up, including Trump/Pence themselves. White males everywhere, including Congress, in much bigger proportion than their part of the population.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Donald Trump as a clueless hierarchy-builder didn't start any time recently.

John Lewis from the beginning was a hierarchy-buster, suffering even a broken skull in the process.

"About the time Trump was more focused on female conquest and winning squash matches
than his studies during his years at Fordham University, John Lewis is
on the ground, his hands covering his head as he’d been trained, while
an Alabama state trooper beats him with a baton. Lewis, who would be
arrested more than 40 times for his civil rights work, came away from
that encounter with a fractured skull."

Saturday, January 14, 2017

As in any hierarchy, the top feels that it should not be held accountable. No where is this more obvious than with our incoming president Donald Trump. Apparently, as we see with his tweets, everyone is accountable to him, but he is accountable to no one.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, in a New York Times op-ed, discusses that without Trump's tax returns, we can not know if he is enriching himself and his family with his position, and whether a policy he proposes benefits Americans or the Trump family. We also don't know if he is telling the truth about his ties to Russia.

Trump of course lies all the time, and expects not to be held accountable for what he does or says. Typical of the top, but hopefully for the good of our country, his unabashed insistence will eventually bring him down.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Utah schools have been teaching girls and boys how to go out on a very sexist date. With separate instructions to boys and girls, the instructions tell girls, "Be feminine and lady-like," “Don’t keep checking in the
mirror combing hair,” “Don’t fish for compliments,” “Don’t criticize his
driving” and “If you think you’re too fat etc, keep it to yourself.”

Over what some said was an example of
misogynistic lessons common in the state, the handouts outline guidelines for a "$5 date" and provide separate instructions for boys and girls.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Progressive group MoveOn.Org has sponsored a competition to depict with humor what it would really mean to 'make America great again" and go back to the old days of the 1950's. They found some great takers “to find the funniest and smartest comedians to take on Donald Trump and the GOP’s politics of hate.”

Two women created a musical number which not only brings back the stereotype of what Trump would like us to think was great, but what was the reality for people who were not white middle class and higher heterosexual men.

This video brings up many hierarchies, and demonstrates that we need
to come together with a common language to fight and conquer a common
enemy.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

We all know Donald Trump's supporters don't have a problem with his making fun of people with disabilities,. But there are plenty of the rest of us who know everyone is equal in that we all enjoy tools that enable us to do what we can't do alone.

Loren Lim has come up with an award-winning design of kitchen attachments that can allow a person with one arm wash dishes, chop vegetables, and bag items, etc. He is an industrial design
student at the National University of Singapore. He is in talks with companies to market his ideas. Called Oneware, one of his most unique ideas includes a perforated silicone layer that grips dishes so users can apply pressure while scrubbing one surface.

In Washington, D.C., a call for chefs all over the country to donate sales made during Donald Trump's inauguration is gathering steam. The idea is to donate profits to groups that are "fighting hate." At least 15 area restaurants have agreed to do so.

Trump is fueling an effort like never before in people who want to stop the hierarchies he and his Republican cohorts are trying so desperately to build and maintain. Yes, maybe we lost this battle, but with efforts and unity like this, we will win the war.

So some of the Trump supporters maybe will unknowingly support causes their leader Trump opposes.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Hairstylists in Illinois have stepped up to become a force for domestic violence prevention. In a new first-in-the-nation law, the unique relationship between a woman and her hairdresser is recognized as a possible information source for people who are victims of domestic abuse. Salon workers will be required to take one our of training every two years to recognize the signs of abuse and assault and will have a list of resources to which they can refer clients for help.For women living with abuse, oftentimes a salon is one of the few places she can go where her abuser is not present nor does he question her need to be outside the home.With Donald Trump acting as a role model for men who sexually assault women, and his macho hierarchical attitudes toward women being praised by his supporters, we are glad to see domestic violence prevention take a progressive step.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

The top group of hierarchies, specifically Donald Trump whose policies along with the GOP have supported hierarchies for decades, is not used to being held accountable.
But Bernie Sanders has done a great job today of using Trump's own words to try to hold him accountable.

A tweet from Trump states, "I was the first and only GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." Bernie brought a large poster of the tweet to the Senate floor. Sanders said that if Trump plans to cut them now, he should admit he was lying.